Praised for her “impassioned singing” (Opera News), Polish American coloratura soprano Alexandra Nowakowski made her European debut as the title role in Manon with Ópera de Oviedo to begin her 2023–2024 season. A passionate ambassador of Polish art song, she brings mixed programs to various venues with Polish pianist Michał Biel, including the Palau de la Música Catalana, Lied Festival Life Victoria, and Carnegie Hall’s Citywide. She also joins Francisco Cholbi in recital for the Sociedad de Conciertos de Alicante and Astral Artists for her farewell recital with pianist Luke Housner. A frequent collaborator with the Metropolitan Opera, she has covered roles in multiple in productions, including Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Gilda in Rigoletto, all for the 2021–2022 season. She returned for the 2022–2023 season to cover Barbara / Mrs. Latch in The Hours, Voce dal cielo in Don Carlo, and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier. For the 2022–2023 season she was also heard as the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Exsultate jubilate with the Symphony in C as well as at the Artosphere Festival under the baton of Corrado Rovaris. She also sang the Queen of the Night with the Ópera Popular de Barcelona as well as the solo parts in Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen also with Symphony in C and Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music at Carnegie Hall with the New England Symphonic Ensemble. Ms. Nowakowski is supported by the Fundación Ópera Actual.

Pianist and tutor Michał Biel graduated from The Juilliard School in New York, studying with Brian Zeger, Margo Garrett, Jonathan Feldman, and J. J. Penn. He also studied with Eytan Pessen at the Opera Academy at the Grand Theatre National Opera in Warsaw, and with Andrzej Jasiński and Grzegorz Biegas at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. He has performed in the world’s most famous concert halls, such as Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, Berliner Philharmoniker, Carnegie Hall, and Alice Tully Hall, as well as some of the most prestigious opera houses including Oper Frankfurt, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Opéra National du Rhin, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Opéra de Lille, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, and the Grand Theatre National Opera. He regularly collaborates with countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, with whom he gives concerts all over the world, also taking part in various renowned festivals like: Verbier Festival, Lied Festival Life Victoria, and Festival de Lacoste Pierre Cardin. The duo’s performances have been broadcast by medici.tv, arte.tv, BBC Radio 3, TVP Kultura, and Polish Radio Programme 2. As collaborative pianist with American bass Alexander Rosen, he won second prize at the Hugo Wolf International Song Competition in Stuttgart in 2018. He is also a laureate with Rosen of the Orsay-Royaumont Academy, which spurred the release of their album Le Promenoir des Amants.